Why is Ligonier Academy introducing an Undergraduate Program alongside its Certificate Program and its Doctor of Ministry Program? To get answers to these questions, let’s take some time to think about the vision and the mission of our Undergraduate Program.
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The crisis regarding the doctrine of justification that provoked the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century has not yet been resolved. Thus, the Reformation is by no means over. The dispute over justification that split the church back then threatens to fracture contemporary, evangelical Christianity. At issue during the Reformation was the relationship of justification to sanctification. It was a question of the order of salvation. The difference is not a tempest in a teapot; it’s one by which salvation itself is defined.
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When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer was about thirty years old when he penned these words in his classic work The Cost of Discipleship. Eight years later he was executed for his crimes against the Third Reich. The prison doctor who witnessed Bonhoeffer’s execution wrote, “In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.” The doctor’s words could not have been more appropriate to describe not only the manner in which Bonhoeffer submitted himself to God in death but also the manner in which he submitted himself to God in life. In his life and at his death, Bonhoeffer grasped one crucial truth: To be set apart to God is to be set apart to die, to die to sin, to self, and to life itself — to take up our crosses daily and to live unto Christ and embrace the true freedom that only comes when Christ calls a man to die and live abundantly in Him.
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Ligonier Academy’s Certificate Program offers laypeople, church leaders, and educators a structured way to prepare to defend your Christian faith by studying Apologetics at your own pace, at your own level of interest, and in your own home. Sign up today by calling 1-800-435-4343. For more information, visit LigonierAcademy.org.
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The May edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "Sanctification: Being Conformed to the Image of Christ." The issue seeks to provide a clear articulation of the doctrine and practice of sanctification. Contributors include R.C. Sproul, Robert Norris, Kevin DeYoung, T. David Gordon, John Freeman, Ken Jones and Iain Campbell.
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The distinction between the sovereign will of God and the permissive will of God is fraught with peril and tends to generate untold confusion.
In ordinary language, the term permission suggests some sort of positive sanction. To say that God “allows” or “permits” evil does not mean that He sanctions it in the sense that He approves of it. It is easy to discern that God never permits sin in the sense that He sanctions it in His creatures.
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The preceptive will of God relates to the revealed commandments of God’s published law. When God commands us not to steal, this decree does not carry with it the immediate necessity of consequence. Where it was not possible for the light to refuse to shine in creation, it is possible for us to refuse to obey this command. In a word, we steal.
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Baked ham or turkey is a traditional favorite on the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner tables of most American homes. And many of us enjoy an occasional steak or Sunday pot roast. For thousands of years, humanity as a whole has feasted on fish or fowl or various animals. Until the rise of the animal rights movement in recent years, no one has questioned the legitimacy of killing these creatures for food.
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Is the Christian faith intellectual nonsense? Are Christians deluded?
“If God exists and takes an interest in the affairs of human beings, his will is not inscrutable,” writes Sam Harris about the 2004 tsunami in Letter to a Christian Nation. “The only thing inscrutable here is that so many otherwise rational men and women can deny the unmitigated horror of these events and think this is the height of moral wisdom” (p. 48). In his article “God’s Dupes,” Harris argues, “Everything of value that people get from religion can be had more honestly, without presuming anything on insufficient evidence. The rest is self-deception, set to music” (The Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2007). Ironically, Harris’ first book is entitled The End of Faith, but it should really be called “The End of Reason,” as it demonstrates again that the mind that is alienated from God in the name of reason can become totally irrational.
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When we reflect on the reasons for introducing the Undergraduate Studies division of Ligonier Academy of Biblical and Theological Studies, we find that that rationale is better understood by thinking about the school’s identity as a place for in-depth instruction and fellowship.
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